Summer Rut

So, apparently my boring summer routine has kept me from blogging. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I only have one more week or work. Four more days. Sixteen more hours. It'll all definitely be worth it when that paycheck hits the bank next month!

One more week of work means vacation is also one week away. I am in no way prepared for my month away from home, but I'm not stressing (not totally anyway) yet. I plan to make many lists at work on Monday so I can organize myself for the rest of the week. So much to do!

Have I mentioned my vacation before? No? I'm bumming along on my parents trip again this summer. Just me. B is staying home since he's in ALC until early August. I struggled with the decision to go without him, but he assured me it was fine and we both agreed that I should/could go while I still can. We won't be so conveniently located for an easy pick up forever and we still don't have any kids to worry about, so why not? Plus, I could totally use some lake time in my life. So, I'll be away from home for right at a month. Almost three weeks on the lake then a handful of days in NYC. Fun times!

I have officially completed my 8-week exercise commitment. Tomorrow I re-do my fitness test to see how much (or if) I improved. I'd love to see some serious gains in ability and/or loss in inches/weight, but I'm not expecting much. I feel stronger, but I'm not sure that will translate to my run or number of squats. My arms are more defined, but will that show up in my measurements? No matter what the test shows, I am really happy with my progress and hope to continue working out in a similar manner moving forward. I don't think I could (or would want to) commit to doing this constantly forever, but perhaps a series of 8-week commitments with breaks in between. I'll figure it out in August when I'm back and I'll do my best to get up and moving while I'm on vacation. I just can't believe I set a goals and worked to achieve it. I'm such a quitter sometimes, but not this time!

Quick boat update: It's been in the shop for a week (or two?), got some things tweaked, cost us $450, and still needs something replaced. Yaaaay. Not. She's back in her storage lot until further notice. I won't miss her while I'm on vacation.

I'll end with this... When you start keeping track of everything you spend, the end of the month isn't so fun. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Double Payday on Tuesday!! I'll be a shopping fool (especially with vacation coming up) the end of this week! :)

Loving Right Now

.1.

The weather this weekend.

Goooooodbye 100-degree weather!

.2.

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

So so so so good. Loved it.

.3.

This new Downton Abbey promo.

I can't wait until January!!

.4.

Football season.

.5.

Some Nights by fun.

I turned this up and jammed out in my car today.

In other news, work is kicking my butt. Working all day, cooking dinner, and keeping up with the house generally takes up every waking hour. The good news is that my weeks go by relatively fast. We went home for 4 days last weekend which was much needed and super fun. I kicked off high school football season with my parents (with a win!). It's still too dang hot, but I know it'll be freezing in a couple months. This weekend we're staying in town. I need to run some errands and clean the house. Brian wants to take the boat out. Hopefully she (the boat) is cooperative. I guess that's about it. Pretty boring, but I wanted to check in.

Lately

Lately we (mostly Brian) have continued battling with the boat. It is currently without an engine and awaiting the new one that is hanging out in the bed of Brian's truck right now. We officially have more money invested in the boat than it will ever be worth. At least it should be back up and running before summer is over. Then we need to use it constantly to get our money's worth!

Lately I have been obsessing over moving. Since we were the last people to move into our house (out of those affected by the demolition), we will be the last people moving to the new place. Yay! Not. We should supposedly be moved by this time next month. I'm hoping for a phone call by the end of July to set up a viewing appointment at our new house.

Lately we've been talking about the future of Brian's Army career. We're committed through the end of 2015 and once planned on spending the bulk of that time (if not all of it) here at Fort Sill. Now that we've been here a few months, it's starting to look like it wasn't the best idea as far as Brian's career goes. We both love the city/area (especially me) and it's amazing being so close to home and family, but the reality is that we might be looking to get out of here sooner than anticipated.

Lately I've been watching Breaking Bad on Netflix. I have heard/read only good things about this show and finally checked it out yesterday. Now I'm halfway through season 2. Yeah...I don't waste any time, do I?

Lately I've been reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I've always known I was an introvert. I've always known I tended to be shy and anxious in social situations. I've always known I prefer quiet time at home with a good book to a rowdy time out on the town. I knew all of these things, but I also always thought that I should be different: outgoing, confident, talkative. I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book and it has already given such a voice to who I am. I highly recommend the book to everyone - extroverts and introverts alike.

Lately I have been getting up before 7 to walk. I had fallen so far off the exercise bandwagon until a couple weeks ago. I know walking two miles every morning isn't a lot, but it's still something. It's weird being up and out that early though. Unbeknownst to me, Army folk like to do PT around my neighborhood. I pass quite a few of them every morning. The sad part? I walk faster than probably a third of them.

Lately I have been counting calories. I've lost 4ish pounds since I started a couple weeks ago. I don't count every single day, but most days I do. I needed to do something before it got away from me and became a bigger problem. I was pushing a certain number on the scale that I will not allow myself to cross. I'm almost to my hit-this-number-and-you-can-drink-a-root-beer weight. Doesn't everyone promise themselves root beer at a certain weight??

Lately I have been working on making old thrift store bed sheets into a rug. When I purchased and ripped the sheets I wanted to make a big ole rug for my big ole kitchen. Buuuuut I won't be using this kitchen for very much longer. Now I'm just making a rug with no real purpose in mind. The new digs are carpet-less on the first floor, so I'm assuming I'll use it down there somewhere. I'll wait and see how big the thing ends up (I have a lot of sheet strips....) and where it looks best.

And...lately I have sucked at blogging. Sorry bout that. I'm gonna get back to Breaking Bad now. Have a good weekend, y'all!

6 Years Ago

Six years ago tonight I met Brian.

I wrote our How We Met story here.

We "celebrated" tonight by eating Taco Bueno for dinner and grabbing frozen yogurt on the way home.

Six years sound like such a long time!

Now I'm watching the Yankees on TV and Brian's back in his Man Cave watching who-knows-what.

In other news: I have a dirt dauber/mud wasp problem. The black and yellow variety to be specific. At least a half dozen of them have made it into the house in the last week. I accidentally found one of their dirt nests yesterday, but I'm still not sure how so many of them are ending up inside. They creep me out! I squeal like a little girl when they're flying around. I don't care that they hardly ever sting, I just want them to stay outside!!

Also, I'm happy to report that the boat is fixed. It still has a truck engine in it which is still annoying, but Brian was super manly yesterday and did everything the boat mechanic told us to do. Hopefully the little issues we've been having with the dang money pit have been solved.

Vacation starts in a little over 3 days! :)

Doctors, Boats, Dinner, & Planes

Pigs are surely flying somewhere because I have been out and about before 8AM the last two mornings. Part of my errands each morning has involved the hospital. Yesterday I had a meet'n'greet check-up thingamajig with my Primary Care Manager (who is awesome!). Today I had blood drawn for routine blood work. The guy who took my blood was the best I've ever had. There isn't even a mark on my arm! And I never felt light-headed which has happened to me more than once after being stuck with a needle. (It might have helped that I brought along crackers and a Yoo-hoo to devour afterward.)

I think I can add the hospital here to the Reasons Why I Love Fort Sill list.

We've also been battling the money pit known as our boat. Don't get me wrong, I still love the beast (which we fully intend to name some day), but she's kinda been a problem child since we got her. We took her to get looked at on Tuesday and got the call that she was ready to be picked up today. We asked them to look at the idle because she idled pretty rough. Well whaddaya know, but the engine in our boat isn't a marine engine. Whaaaa?! Someone at some point put a Chevy V8 in there. They knew enough to hook things up so it would work, but it isn't hooked up as well as it could be. The super nice guy at the shop told us step-by-step how to fix everything ourselves. That'll be Brian's project for the weekend. I find it so annoying that people out there do the wrong thing and then pass that crappy decision and it's consequences onto other people. Technically, marinas and boat repair places aren't supposed to touch an engine like ours. We may have trouble in the future getting it worked on or looked at. All because some dummy put a freaking truck engine in it!

It's the last day of May in the South and I turned the a/c off this morning. It is absolutely perfect weather out there. All of my windows and doors are open and there's been a steady breeze blowing through the house.

I made Creamy Jambalaya Pasta for dinner tonight and it was surprisingly tasty! I wasn't totally sure if the Cajun seasoning and Parmesan cheese would work well together, but somehow it did.

Less than a week until our big summer vacation. I hate flying, but I love our destination so I'll get through it. I already downloaded a bunch of new music (and by new I mean all of Phillip Phillips American Idol performances) to get me through the flights. If I try to read, do puzzles, or watch anything I tend to get motion sick, so my strategy has been to zone out to music the entire time.

That's all I've got for today.

We Bought A Boat

Two weeks ago buying a boat was simply an idea. Something we jokingly talked about. "Wouldn't that be fun?" we would say. At some point, though, we got serious. Brian's parents owed us money and we looked at our finances and started scouring craigslist. We realized we could easily make this happen.

About 10 days later, we were the owners of a 1989 Bayliner Capri. There were a few boats that fell through and we both got really frustrated with the craigslist offerings, but in the end we found one in our hometown that fit the bill. It also worked out that I was down there last week picking up more of my stuff from my parents' house so I could check the boat out with my dad and eventually make the deal.

My in-laws drove it up for us on Saturday and we went straight to the lake.

I was excited to see that it floated!

It even started relatively easily, but smack dab in the middle of the lake it died. I thought we'd have to be towed in or something. After a good 15 minutes she (I like to refer to the boat as a girl...) started up again. Brian drove around for a long time trying to work the old gas through the engine. By the end of the day she was running much better and wasn't trying to die every time we slowed down.

I found that I preferred the back-facing view. Sometimes I get too anxious if I can see what's coming (perceived waves and/or other boats). I'm a much better passenger when I'm clueless.

I even took a turn driving around. I was on boats quite a bit when I was little and I've always been comfortable on them and driving them. It was a perfect day - not too hot and overcast. Rain clouds eventually rolled in so we called it a day before we all got wet.

The boat is Brian's latest hobby. He is always looking up accessories and life jackets and parts on the internet. He loves the outdoors (hiking, camping, etc.) while I'm more of an indoor kinda girl. I think the boat is a good compromise for both of us. I love the water and he loves being active and outside. I'm excited about our boating adventures this summer!